THE STRESS PROCESS WITHIN THE ROY ADAPTATION FRAMEWORK: SOURCES, MEDIATORS AND MANIFESTATIONS OF STRESS IN SPOUSES OF CORONARY ARTERY BYPASS PATIENTS DURING HOSPITALIZATION AND SIX WEEKS POST DISCHARGE.
Contributors: Wayne State University.
Published: 1988
Number of pages: 260
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Illness produces stress for the patient as well as for other family members such as the spouse. This research investigation was a longitudinal study of the sources, mediators and manifestations of stress that female spouses experience when a partner undergoes coronary artery bypass surgery.

The study was guided by the Critical Care Spouse Stress Theoretical Model, a model deduced from the Roy Adaptation Model by the investigator. The study tested the predicted relationships among the concepts in the theoretical model. Two research questions were asked: What are the relationships among social support, hardships and demands, perception of illness severity, coping responses and spouse stress responses? and How much variance in spouse stress responses at time two will be explained by the four predictor variables at time one, i.e., social support, hardships and demands, coping, and perception of illness severity.

This non-experimental study had two data collection points. Time one data collection was conducted in the hospital by questionnaires and self-report scales and time two data collection occurred six weeks later at home by mail questionnaires. The instruments administered were: Family Inventory of Life Events (FILE), Spouse Stressor Scale (SSS), Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire (NSSQ) Indices of Coping Responses, Perception of Illness Severity Ladder Scale, and the stress response measures, i.e., the Strain Questionnaire (SQ), the Role Strain Scale (RSS) and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. All measures had established reliability and validity except for the SSS and the RSS, developed by the investigator for this study.

The target population was all female spouses of first-time coronary artery bypass patients. The convenience sample consisted of 86 spouses at time one and 67 spouses at time two.

Study findings supported some of the links in the theoretical model, that (a) social support is positively related to active coping and dyadic adjustment, (b) hardships and demands are negatively related to stress responses, (c) perception of illness severity is negatively related to stress responses, and (d) avoidance coping is positively related to stress responses. Twenty-two to 41% variance was explained by the independent variables, depending on the dimension of stress response analyzed.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-12, Section: B, page: 5225.

Thesis (PH.D.)--WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY, 1988.

School code: 0254.